Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Basic elements of a model and definitions of stability
- 3 System stability and the balance of power
- 4 Resource stability and the balance of power
- 5 Preventive war
- 6 Geography, balancers, and central powers
- 7 Great-power alliance formation, 1871–1914
- 8 European conflict resolution, 1875–1914
- 9 Summary and conclusions
- References and selected bibliography on European great-power relations, 1871–1914
- Index
4 - Resource stability and the balance of power
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Basic elements of a model and definitions of stability
- 3 System stability and the balance of power
- 4 Resource stability and the balance of power
- 5 Preventive war
- 6 Geography, balancers, and central powers
- 7 Great-power alliance formation, 1871–1914
- 8 European conflict resolution, 1875–1914
- 9 Summary and conclusions
- References and selected bibliography on European great-power relations, 1871–1914
- Index
Summary
… disagreements about how benefits should be distributed permeate the relations among actors and persist because bargains are never permanently valid Furthermore, this struggle to make others adjust is played repeatedly. Apparent victory can be illusory or defeat ephemeral, for political bargaining and maneuver result not in definitive choices conferring power on some people rather than others, but in agreements that may in the future be reversed or in discord that signals a continuation of bargaining and maneuver.
Robert O. Keohane, After Hegemony (1984, p. 18)This discovery of instability…points up sharply the contrast between economic activity, most of the models for which are self-equilibrating or assume some kind of “dynamic” equilibrium, and political activity, where fundamental instability seems inherent and ineradicable.
William H. Riker, The Theory of Political Coalitions (1962, pp. 173–4)The relevance of system stability to resource stability
Hitherto, our analysis has focused simply on the first part of the game, which concerns international actors. This focus is especially important because it deals with the fundamental issue of sovereignty and the survival of regimes, and it shows how such survival is ensured in anarchic systems. The central thesis of this volume, however, is that there are two types of instability, and we should also be concerned about the possibility that the second type - resource instability - can also upset systems and lead to conflict.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Balance of PowerStability in International Systems, pp. 115 - 145Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1989